Play-By-Playmate: Jaime's Interleague Roundup

By Jaime EdmondsonJune 25, 2012

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Interleague play is all about the cross city and state series and this year's were a little lopsided.

Well, June is coming to a close and with it interleague play which means the battles for baseball’s states and cities are over. Ten of the thirty Major League teams are involved in these interleague rivalries and though some are historically lopsided, this year, all of them were. Each one had a clear winner or loser and I think we’ll start today with one of the most famous ones…

The Subway Series
So in case you’ve been living under a rock, the subway series is the battle for New York, the Yankees and the Mets and this year’s started off a little heated when Mets closer Frank Francisco told the New York Post that he couldn’t “wait to face those chickens.” No one was really sure what exactly he meant by it or why he even said it but it didn’t stop the Post from running a full page cover of Jeter’s head on a chicken’s body, saying something like “cluck you.” It also didn’t stop the Yankees as they won two out of three this weekend to go along with a sweep earlier in the month to take the season series 5 games to 1. In the words of Nick Swisher, that’s “not too bad for a bunch of chickens.”
The Freeway Series
Out on the West coast, the Dodgers and the Angels squared off and while the Dodgers might own the best National League record, the Angels own them in interleague play and continued their dominance, winning the season series 4-2. After a slow start, the Angels have been on fire this month, winning all their series including a pivotal one against Texas. They’re a team we definitely need to keep an eye on. They’ve got a pretty easy slate of games going into the All Star break and could use the padding before they see the Yankees, Tigers and Rangers in July.
The Lonestar Series
They say everything’s bigger in Texas which would explain why the winner of the Lonestar series is rewarded with a giant silver cowboy boot complete with a handmade spur. Now, do I know what exactly it is they do with the boot once they win it? No. Maybe they eat cereal out of it or take turns trying it on? I don’t know, but the Rangers were this year’s winner taking five of the six games away from the Astros and solidifying themselves as the interleague champs in Texas.
The Crosstown Classic
These two teams, the Cubs and White Sox could not be further apart in terms of talent. While the White Sox lord over the American League Central, the Cubs are in the basement looking up in it’s National League counterpart. Naturally, the White Sox took the series four games to two but it was so boring Chicagoans didn’t even bother watching. This year’s Crosstown Classic had the lowest paid attendance of any rivalry series since interleague began.
The Citrus Series
Being a Florida girl, I saved the best series for last, the Citrus series between the Tampa Bay Rays and Florida Marlins. This was another lopsided affair, with the Rays winning five games and the Marlins only managing to win one and it took them 15 innings to do so. That said, the Marlins did officially win the battle of the stadiums with new Marlins Park being an awesomely gawdy, 70s South Beach tribute to baseball.